(urth) Short Story 110: The Cat

[Lee]

>He takes her to his specula, where beings can be materialized from 

>ethereal waves


After being tossed in, is this cat alive or dead? I can't help but

think some of this story is a veiled nod to Schroedinger.


>to tell her some tale of the worlds beyond Dis”


>or circumfused to the border of Briah.”


Father Inire is an alien, but we are never told (openly) from which

ship he arrived on Urth. I think both these lines hint at Tzadkiel's

Ship.


>I found the thing 'not unlike a doll' to be quite mysterious when I
>first read it.


There is another character from BotNS who has a thing for "dolls" or 

"paracoita" or "scopolangia" or "genicon". Hethor uses all these terms.


I'll go out on a limb, but not too far, to suggest that Hethor came from

Tzadkiel's ship. He admits to being a mutineer and Severian sees someone

who looks a lot like him among the "jibers" on the Ship.


Given that Father Inire and Hethor are the two "mirror masters" and if both

came from Tzadkiel's Ship, I find a suggestion that these two characters may

be one and the same (perhaps in the way that Zak and "tinker bell" are the 

same as Tzadkiel.


It is usually assumed that Hethor is a fellow assassin with Agia. But if he

shares the purposes of Father Inire, perhaps his actions are not truly

murderous but rather for the purpose of observation and testing of this

immortal demi-god on Urth who doesn't quite know who he really is (yet).

Earlier, Hethor seemed very admiring and worshipful of Severian and it seemed

sincere.


In his letter to Severian, Father Inire mentions being up north with the 

Ascians and by this and other clues, some think the Jungle Shaman is an 

appearance by Father Inire. Is it a coincidence that Hethor happens to be 

there too?